A Wolf's Howl, A Fairy's Wing

The sisters were crouching in a forested area. The snow lay thick around them and crunched lightly under their feet.

It seemed to be empty and quiet, but Emma trusted her big sister.

While Emily was missing a third-rankers omnisense, or a Runebound's supernatural senses, she had something similar: her mind control spell.

Originally nothing more than its name suggested, Emily had unlocked an improvement to her second-rank darkness spell: primer aura. As Arcanists or Runebounds progress in their journey, they often discover enhancements to their existing abilities by continuing to explore the sigils or runes associated with those abilities.

Thus, primer aura was not a new spell, but an improvement on her existing spell.

In this case, primer aura allowed Emily prime the minds of people around her for enslavement. This didn't actually allow her to enslave en-mass or at a distance, but it did allow her to make the process much faster when she actually got her hands on someone.

As an added bonus, it caused those affected to become just a little bit confused, and, most importantly at this moment, allowed Emily to feel when someone was being affected by her aura. And if they were close enough to be affected…

Suddenly, a tree rustled.

… they were close enough to detect them.

Pof!

A man landed, a few meters to the right of them, in the snow. He was clearly a vampire, with red eyes and pale skin, wearing the colors of the Dominion.

He grinned widely at the two women in front of him, "Well, well, well. What do we have here? Two human girls, dressed in such pretty outfits, lost in the woods? What a tragedy! I don't know how you two got here, but don't worry, your savior is here! I'll even use my body to give you girls a little fun before I bring you both to the blood farms!

Isn't that nice of me?"

Emma and Emily looked at each other with strange expressions. Emily was full of amusement and ridicule, while Emma showed a bit of pity. Just a little, though.

Turning back the vampire, Emily smiled seductively, "You've never actually met many humans since the awakening, have you?"

"Perhaps not," the vampire shrugged with a confident grin, feeling encouraged by her smile, clearly too clueless to realize the sister's previous expressions should be worrying him. "But don't worry, I still remember how to please a woman!" he finished with a predatory grin.

He swaggered closer to the sister's, rolling his Runebound muscles in an attempt to intimidate.

"I highly doubt it," Emily answered, her smile turning malicious. "But that's not what I meant. If you'd ever actually met any second-ranked humans, you'd recognize our aura and run for the hills as fast as your pathetic, limp-dicked, little first-ranked legs could carry you."

Quickly, the vampire's confidence made way for fury. Standing close enough now, he reached out his hand toward's Emily's shoulder with a twisted expression, "Bitch! I'll make you pay for that!"

His hand never reached her shoulder, however.

In front of Emily's shoulder floated a flat, swirling, puddle of darkness. And the vampire's hand had fully disappeared into it… without coming out the other side.

Losing all his anger, the man frowned with confusion instead. He pulled back his arm and stared at the stump where his hand used to be. Blood leaked out, but his Runebound and vampiric regeneration were quickly working together to close the wound. Although they couldn't regrow the hand.

"U— Uh…" he mumbled, Emily's primer aura working to amplify his confusion.

Not that it was necessary.

"Master is the only man who gets to touch us," Emily said, a grin nearly splitting her face in half, bloodthirst, cruelty, and zealotry mixed in her eyes.

When the pain started catching up to him, the vampire was about to scream, but Emily was faster. She pressed a pitch black magic circle against his forehead, and instantly, his eyes dulled, and his limbs went slack.

Between his status as a mere first-ranker and Emily primer aura having worked on him for at least a few minutes, there really wasn't any resistance to her control.

"There's a good boy," Emily giggled, the expression on here face unchanged. "I have a few questions for you in a moment, but first, I'd like you to turn around, stick your remaining good hand in your pants, rip off whatever excuse for a manhood you have in there, and throw it away. Oh, and don't forget to stay quiet!"

Emma, who had so far simply watched the exchange in silence, knowing Emily would be fine, now paled, and softly exclaimed, "E— Emily!"

Hearing her little sister's voice, Emily's cruel expression faded, replaced by an aggrieved pout. She turned towards the woman behind her, "W— What? It's not like he'll feel it… he's just a puppet now… and he deserves it! Daring to try and put his hands on us," she gnashed her teeth at the end, fury in her eyes.

After everything that happened with Liam, Emily had a special hatred reserved for men who tried to force themselves on others. Sure, Erik didn't exactly treat her with the respect that most women would want to be treated with, but he always gave her a choice.

And she happily gave in to him.

"I— b— but that's too much… isn't it?!" Emma began, hiding her eyes from the vampire man. But just when she asked her question, the sound of flesh ripping echoed, before something landed a little further away in the snow.

While they talked, Emily's newest puppet had already fulfilled his first orders.

The two sisters turned back towards vampire, who still looked at them with a dull gaze, but now had a growing patch of blood on his pants, right between his legs.

"Good boy!" Emily grinned viciously.

"Ugh" Emma groaned, and turned around again. "Just… ask the questions and put him out of his misery, alright?"

It wasn't like Emma was going to advocate on the vampire's behalf, and she certainly wasn't going to try and heal him. She just wasn't a fan of such unnecessary cruelty.

She didn't plan to try and change her big sister, however. She already knew what made her act this way, and that there was likely nothing she could do about it. Nothing, apart from accepting Emily the way she was.

She would tell Erik about her sister's casual cruelty, of course, but she had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn't care.

"Like I said," Emily shrugged, casually. "He's just a puppet, and doesn't feel anything. No misery here."

"That come's later…" she finished with a sadistic smile, before beginning to ask her questions.

She asked the vampire about the bunker, the control room, Dominion forces in the area, and anything else she or Emma could think of.

When they were done, they walked away, Emma sighing sadly at the way Emily had decided to leave the vampire. "Was that really necessary? You could have just killed him!" she mumbled, a little indignant.

"I have no mercy for men like him, little Em…" Emily answered with a somewhat cute scoff, as she turned her face away.

"I know… and I get it…" Emma sighed, a little sad at the cruelty of not just her sister, but the world in general. "I just don't like seeing it."

Emily stopped, and turned to her little sister. "Do you… hate it, when I do stuff like that?" she asked, her expression suddenly a little scared and sad. When that man showed up she'd simply reacted.

She didn't care about her own behavior, nor did she know if she could stop, as according to Erik and Elora, this kind of thing was simply a part of her now. But if it put her relationship with Emma at risk, she would certainly try.

Emma looked at her sister's expression and was reminded that this woman would likely do anything for her, even fight her basest impulses. But she knew that would only lead to Emily's suffering, when she was finally starting to be as happy as Emma herself was.

So, she sighed again, and shook her head. In the end, when forced to choose between her sister's happiness and the occasional suffering of strangers, she still chose her sister. "No, I could never hate you, big Em. I love you. All of you. And I'll find a way to accept this, too.

Please don't try and change yourself on my account. I want you to be happy."

Emily smiled widely, and hugged her little sister tightly. "Thank you! I love you too, little Em!" The raven-haired sister turned around, and moved on with a spring in her step. "Come on! Let's go find that bunker!"

Meanwhile, a little ways back, a miserable human form was writhing on the ground. It was the vampire from earlier. Inky darkness was slowly dissolving his body from the limbs inward. His vocal cords had been ripped out, disallowing him to scream, but his eyes showed none of the dullness of before.

Now, they were open wide, and showed only pain and suffering. Clearly, Emily had released him, forcing him to endure the suffering she had judged him with.

He died half an hour later, alone, and driven insane from the pain.

Back with the sisters, they arrived next to a cave opening. "Here it is…" Emily mumbled.